Katie Couric Interviews Rosemary and Lauren Mathis

Lauren Mathis

By Norma Erickson

HPV Vaccine Controversy?

December 4th, Rosemary and Lauren Mathis were interviewed on the Katie Couric Show, for an episode entitled The HPV Vaccine Controversy. They were there to tell people what happened to Lauren after she took the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, and to advise people to exercise their right to fully informed consent by doing some research before deciding whether or not to add HPV vaccination to their cervical cancer prevention regime.

For those who would question, Rosemary would like to make it perfectly clear that she in NOT anti-vaccine. Had she been so, she would have never considered HPV vaccination for her daughter. This is not the case, Lauren was completely up-to-date on her vaccines when their family doctor suggested Gardasil. Trusting that their doctor would never recommend anything that could harm Lauren without telling them of the potential risks, she received all three injections in 2008. They had no idea how drastically their lives would change from that point on.

Lauren spent the next two years experiencing a variety of new medical conditions, some of them so severe that Rosemary would sleep next to Lauren because she was afraid she was going to lose her. Rosemary spent what free time she had between doctor and hospital visits researching to try and find out what was happening to her daughter.

Watch the clip of Rosemary and Lauren on the Katie Couric Show below to hear their story.

The information Rosemary discovered during her research sent her on a mission to protect other families from experiencing what hers did without knowing the potential risks. Rosemary is determined to make sure every parent has full disclosure of potential side effects of HPV vaccines prior to their child’s vaccination.

That is why Rosemary is one of the founding members of SaneVax. She believes Safe, Affordable, Necessary and Effective is not too much to ask for when it comes to vaccines. There is a huge difference between being anti-vaccine and being pro-common sense.

When it comes to HPV vaccines, she wants people to know that they are using a medical intervention in a healthy population attemptimg to reduce the incidence of a disease that would not normally occur for decades. Since there is already an effective and proven safe method of controlling this disease in place, any risk to the current health status of the target population is unacceptable.

Rosemary has never told anyone not to use HPV vaccines. She simply asks people to do some research before they decide if HPV vaccines are right for them. The decision is theirs – as it should be.

The SaneVax team would like to thank Katie Couric for having the courage to provide a venue for serious discussion of the HPV vaccine controversy. The discussion is long overdue – thank you on behalf of parents around the world.

Rosemary and Lauren, thank you for giving a voice to the thousands of parents whose children have experienced new and unexplained medical conditions after HPV vaccine administration.

Watch all of the clips from The HPV Vaccine Controversyhere. If you have questions, comments, or opinions about HPV vaccines, feel free to join the conversation.